The Jump

So, what's this 'Jump' thing all about? Van Halen fan? Skydiving aficionado? Life coach?

Hardly. Those of you who've been reading this blog faithfully for a while (hi, Dad!) know that it has long been clearly obvious what I do for a living - I'm a writer, a journalist, a scribe, and for nearly five years, this blog has been dubbed WriterJax.

Which is kinda catchy, but I've always felt it has its issues. It started as my screen name and I carried it over to blogland, so it's really getting old. Plus, I sound stupid when I say it out loud.

So I started thinking about new titles that would speak to my career, and in turn what I talk about most here, but also open the door a bit wider to some different conversations. Hence, the jump. The jump is that little piece of story that carries over onto another page in a newspaper or magazine. It's a term I see every week, printed in bold letters on layout pages to note where the excess wordage is supposed to be placed. In the chaos of a press day, it's pretty common to hear the question 'Where's the jump to this?' about 32 times, in varying degrees of surly tones.

A friend of mine works for a publication at which her managing editor has actually created a formal space for the jumps of front-page articles, on page four or so ... it has a big banner on the top that reads, The Jump Page. I hope I'm not underestimating people, but am I correct to assume that most people outside of my profession don't know what a jump is? I wonder how many people turn to that page and try to figure out why they're being told to Go Ahead and Jump. Not helpful.

Still, I thought it was a good term for a writer's blog that doesn't require a lot of explanation - it just sort of is. Like I said in the masthead, we'll see if it sticks. The URL, of course, will stay the same.

A side note about the masthead, too - the photo is a snippet of a larger image taken in my friend Kerstin's home office.

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